Saturday 19 May
We're in Lanzhou. As usual, when we arrive at our hostel after travelling, we're a bit tired and plan a quiet day, finding our bearings in the local area.
The hostel seems nice and our room is ready. It's a large room with a double bed and we are given 2 quilts just for good measure. All hostels have their advantages and drawbacks, and of course some are better than others. In this hostel, the shower is not very good and is also right down the corridor. There's no water facility in our room - this is a hostel after all. There is however constant hot and cold drinking water on tap in the hostel lobby.
I just want to have an hour's sleep. Reg doesn't need a rest despite being woken at 5 am this morning. He messes around a bit on the computer and his smartphone while I recover.
We've been told that there's a place nearby where we can buy train tickets; it's 4 pm and it won't be open now but we decide to go for a walk and try to find it so that we can go there tomorrow - we need to have a meal, anyway.
It's a busy area around the hostel, with numerous little shops selling all sorts of wares, and a few eating places too. We spot a gentlemen's hairdressers, and we pop in because Reg needs a haircut. The barber gives Reg a nice short haircut, and washes his hair afterwards - all for 10 yuan (which is about £1). We try to leave a 5 yuan tip but the barber won't accept it. After the haircut the barber's wife insists on her husband taking photos of Reg, me and the her, then she takes a couple of Reg, me and the barber. We saunter off, only for the barber to chase us with my purple backpack which we left in his shop.
We can't find the building where you buy train tickets, Reg thinks he'll try and buy them over the internet. We try our luck at a local restaurant, but aren't successful really. No-one speaks any English, the menu's in Chinese, and they don't seem able to provide any of the meals on the list we carry with us, which is in English and Chinese. In the end the waitress seems to be suggesting something, so we say yes, but it turns out to be similar to what we had on our first evening in China - a very spicy stew-like dish with bony pieces of meat in it, potatoes and a beansprouts, and a couple of chicken's feet for good measure. We don't enjoy it that much, and needless to say the chicken's feet are left in the dish.
We wander back to our hostel, buying 2 melon-pieces-on-a-stick and an ice-cream each. No little shady green park to eat them in as in Urumqi, so we take them back to the hostel and enjoy them there.
When I go to clean my teeth before going to bed, there's no water. I ask at reception, and am told this happens sometimes in the evening. The receptionist says it should be back on later - but I go on to bed.
When I wander down the corridor in the middle of the night to go to the loo, there's still no water. It's not surprising really - we're in a very dry area, not that far from the Gobi desert. Lanzhou is one of the towns on the Silk Road, along which "caravans" ( traders with camels) used to travel, bringing goods from the East to the West.
We're in Lanzhou. As usual, when we arrive at our hostel after travelling, we're a bit tired and plan a quiet day, finding our bearings in the local area.
The hostel seems nice and our room is ready. It's a large room with a double bed and we are given 2 quilts just for good measure. All hostels have their advantages and drawbacks, and of course some are better than others. In this hostel, the shower is not very good and is also right down the corridor. There's no water facility in our room - this is a hostel after all. There is however constant hot and cold drinking water on tap in the hostel lobby.
I just want to have an hour's sleep. Reg doesn't need a rest despite being woken at 5 am this morning. He messes around a bit on the computer and his smartphone while I recover.
We've been told that there's a place nearby where we can buy train tickets; it's 4 pm and it won't be open now but we decide to go for a walk and try to find it so that we can go there tomorrow - we need to have a meal, anyway.
It's a busy area around the hostel, with numerous little shops selling all sorts of wares, and a few eating places too. We spot a gentlemen's hairdressers, and we pop in because Reg needs a haircut. The barber gives Reg a nice short haircut, and washes his hair afterwards - all for 10 yuan (which is about £1). We try to leave a 5 yuan tip but the barber won't accept it. After the haircut the barber's wife insists on her husband taking photos of Reg, me and the her, then she takes a couple of Reg, me and the barber. We saunter off, only for the barber to chase us with my purple backpack which we left in his shop.
We can't find the building where you buy train tickets, Reg thinks he'll try and buy them over the internet. We try our luck at a local restaurant, but aren't successful really. No-one speaks any English, the menu's in Chinese, and they don't seem able to provide any of the meals on the list we carry with us, which is in English and Chinese. In the end the waitress seems to be suggesting something, so we say yes, but it turns out to be similar to what we had on our first evening in China - a very spicy stew-like dish with bony pieces of meat in it, potatoes and a beansprouts, and a couple of chicken's feet for good measure. We don't enjoy it that much, and needless to say the chicken's feet are left in the dish.
We wander back to our hostel, buying 2 melon-pieces-on-a-stick and an ice-cream each. No little shady green park to eat them in as in Urumqi, so we take them back to the hostel and enjoy them there.
When I go to clean my teeth before going to bed, there's no water. I ask at reception, and am told this happens sometimes in the evening. The receptionist says it should be back on later - but I go on to bed.
When I wander down the corridor in the middle of the night to go to the loo, there's still no water. It's not surprising really - we're in a very dry area, not that far from the Gobi desert. Lanzhou is one of the towns on the Silk Road, along which "caravans" ( traders with camels) used to travel, bringing goods from the East to the West.
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